Butterflies In A Dream World
by reginassthief
Summary: Witch AU. Once an actual witch is killed, Regina realises that it's not safe to stay in the village anymore and prepares to set off into hiding. Robin, however, has to deal with this departure for the next ten years as well as some troubles of his own. Outlaw Queen.
1. Prologue

**I've faced the fact that I'm never going to stop coming up with multi-chapters, no matter how many WIPs I already have in progress. That being said, I'm hoping updates between this will come long term because I still have to work out the plot and so forth and just figure out if I should continue with this or not but I just wanted to give you a taste of this and just see if you like it.**

 **Witch au, set in the 15th century. A few changes to history (more the timeline of history itself with a few other changes to suit the fic) Outlaw Queen. This chapter is kinda angsty.**

 **So, if you want me to carry on with this, let me known down in the reviews- also telling me what you think would be nice.**

 **Thanks!**

Heavy pants escape her as she collapses into the mattress. Releasing the bedding from the tight grip of her hands, Regina smiles; happy and sated and slowly falling off to sleep.

She feels a shift beside her, the bed creaking and the warmth of a body sliding closer to her. He always liked cuddling, something Regina had been against at first.

Regina turns, shivering as sweat begins to dry on her bare skin, the draft from the open sneaking its way into the room and causing Goosebumps to prickle.

"Cold," she says, truly feeling the icy air on her skin now and with a bit of twisting and shifting from herself and Robin, soon enough the two of them are huddled beneath the furs and wrapped closer to each other.

She tucks her head under his skin, breathing in the piny scent of him and slowly feeling herself drift off to sleep. Tonight was good, she thinks. Tonight what was she needed.

"Did you watch the burning today?"

The words stop her from falling asleep. Not because they were spoken out loud but because of the sentence itself. The burning had been the reason she'd wanted Robin tonight. The reason she'd wanted to wrap herself up in him, feel him, feel alive...for however along that may last.

Yes, she'd seen the burning.

"I never would have thought they'd ever catch a real one."

He speaks as though they're rare animals to be hunted down and kept as a trophy and for a second that's angering her, taking her out of the comforting bubble she'd found herself in.

"I thought most of them had gone into hiding."

Regina swallows down her anger- and her fear- untucking her head from his chin, she pushes away- still keeps within arms hold but far enough so she can look at him.

"Some," she says. "But not all."

Robin's grip on her tightens, pushing her more towards him as he says, "I worry about you. I worry that they'll find you and kill you."

His worry would be cute if Regina wasn't also in a state of her own worry. She'd been fine at first, adament that she'd never be caught, that none of them would be caught. They're too clever to be caught, no better than to stick around certain places, most go into hiding, banding together and creating their own village away from judging eyes.

There are those that stay, however. Those like Regina who hide within every day people, who conceal their powers and let nobody know. It's safer.

Regina thought she was safe.

These people weren't clever. There was a stereotype of what a witch looked like- usually old women, who lived alone, maybe had a black cat as a pet. Unimaginative but they often used this stereotype to their advantaged. After all, nobody would except a five year old child to be a witch then.

This was often unlucky for the older women who did live alone and just so happened to own a cat.

They were the first to go.

And everyone else had been forced to watch.

Watch burnings, drownings...all manner of tortures and at the end, futile. Nothing. Just a woman. A dead woman.

Regina had thought she was safe. Until this morning.

This morning, the village was woken by screams. Every reason ran out of their house to see just what the noise was and there _she_ was- Courtney Bray- being dragged out of her home.

Later, everyone had been asked to gather around the pyre. At first, everyone assumed she was just a normal girl. She was simple, not very clever, but a loyal friend many had the opportunity to find out. But she wasn't entirely honest.

Regina can still remember the anxious feelings she had, the gasps of the crowd as the black smoke of the fire had slowly turned to green, the horror on everyone's faces that Courtney Bray hadn't just been another victim of the witch huntings, she had, in fact, been a witch.

But what shocked Regina most wasn't the fact that one of them had been caught, no. What had shocked her was when she looked towards George King- the man who had sentenced Courtney Bray to death- and the absolute glee on his face. Her stomach had dropped then and all Regina had wanted to do was to just fade into the crowd.

"Sometimes I desperately want you to go into hiding," Robin says, no doubt having the same memory Regina had just been having, he witnessed it too, after all. "But god, I don't want to lose you." He hugs her closer then, his nose nuzzling her hair as he presses a kiss into it.

"Perhaps it's best," Regina whispers and she feels Robin still. "It's clear now that I cannot say here."

It had been a hard decision to make- everything she'd ever known was here and leaving it behind...it scared her. Scared her more than the burnings and the witch hunting. But that was foolish thinking- nothing was supposed to scare her more then that.

"But when would I see you again?"

Witch hunting was a game to many, a simple sport and like many sports and games, people grew tired of them. That is when Robin would see Regina again. When this game finally came to an end and not before then. She just wouldn't know when that was.

"When the world ends."

Another answer: **Who knows?**

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

The walk to the town line is short and silence. They have so much to stay, their official goodbyes but Robin reckons that'll happen at the town line, and yet neither of them don't want to speak.

He knows it's for the best. Regina's safety should always come before his own selfishness and it does but even that's not enough to stop his heart from feeling heavy, the emptiness he feels in his gut.

Regina had been all he'd known for a while now, his first proper friend since that day in the woods. It had always been the day he'd found out about her powers, his eyes going wide as he watched purple smoke swirl around it, the tingling his arm felt as the broken bones magically repaired themselves.

He'd been the first to find out that Regina was a witch and he hoped he'd forever be the last.

The sight of the town line fills him with dread. They've reached it far too soon for Robin's liking yet he knows they can't avoid the inevitable forever. This was happening. Now. Whether Robin liked it or not.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asks, needing to know. There was a bi scary world outside this village, harder and stronger than anything they've ever known. The only way he can let her go is if he knows she's going to be okay.

"I'll manage," Regina says and while it's not the answer Robin was looking for, he doesn't press for more.

Eight years. Eight years he'd had the pleasure of spending time with Regina and now this is where it would all end.

His eyes scan the woods nearby. It's dark and misty but he can just make out the trees. He bites down a chuckle when one tree catches his attention- the tree he fell from when he was just ten years old. The tree he first met Regina at. The irony that it all ends where it began. Fitting.

His eyes fall back to Regina where he finds her staring at him, her own eyes filled with sadness and longing and just a twinge bit of regret in there and, despite the sight of it there, it fills him with a strange sort of comfort, knowing that, deep down, Regina doesn't want to leave either.

But that regret can't be there. This is a decision she has to make. For her safety. For her life.

It's time she stop focusing on other people's lives and starts caring about his own.

"I'm going to miss you," she says. It's nothing more than a whisper, something lost in the wind and air but Robin hears them and they send an arrow through his heart.

"Me, too." His hand falls into her hair, swirling a lock of it around his fingers. They say all witches have dark hair. God, this alone is enough to make her a suspect.

He brings it up to his nose, inhaling the scent of it and allowing himself to get lost in it for once last time. His keeps his eyes open forever, blue staring at brown as all emotions flitter through Regina's eyes; love, fear, regret, guilt...

He lets go of her hair, a sudden need to be more near he. He pulls her towards him, holding her for the last time and allowing his embrace to say the words he cannot.

He won't say the words. Won't doom them for his own selfish reasons. Won't curse them to live apart for eternity.

When they kiss, he lets his kiss say the words he cannot.

And when they part, he knows she knows them. Her eyes opening and her breathing slightly more heavy as her eyes drop back to his lips- a quick peck in return before she's stepping back, grasping hold of her bag- and it's really not much, Robin realises- more firmly, eyes set hard on what she has to do and not what she feels.

"Goodbye, Robin."

She doesn't wait for his own goodbye. Instead, she takes a deep breath and steps over the old painted line. Like many things Regina does, once she starts she can't stop going.

Robin watches her leave. Watches her get further and further away until she's lost in the mist and completely out of sight.

It's only there that Robin dare to utter the words.

 **I Love You.**


	2. Chapter One

**I am not dead! It has been so long that I've wrote anything so this is the first thing in months and this alone took me forever to write. I seem to have my writing mojo back now so I should be posting and writing more frequently. For those that have been waiting for this ever so paitently, thank you! I know it's been a long wait but hopefully that should change now. This isn't the best I've written before but it's been so long that I don't want to fuss about it any longer. Hope you enjoy :)**

 **TEN YEARS LATER**

The forest falls silent all around him, the only noise coming from his own heaving breaths as his eyes manically scan the area.

She was just here! He just saw her...

A twig breaks within the silence and his eyes jump to the direction. A little whimper, panting breaths that don't belong to him.

He tiptoes towards it. Knowing this forest like the back of his hand, knowing where to step, he's quiet, maybe she thinks he's gone away.

He keeps walking towards the log, to where she's hiding behind it. Getting closer and closer, quiet, quietly before...

He steps on a twig.

Another whimper, a small, scared _Please..._

He shuts his eyes, blocking it out. Why can't they just be quiet. It would be easier if they could just be quiet.

"I'm sorry," he says before reaching into his bag. His fingers sink into dust, grasping a handful and pulling it out.

 _Please don't take me to him_ , she cries. He can't see her face. Her back his to him, a hood over her head, body curled into a tight ball.

"I have to."

He throws the dust, watching her body fall slump onto the ground.

He climbs over the log, kneeling down beside her. It's a fight to keep the guilt away, a fight to not leave her there until she wakes up.

Her face is still concealed. Hidden by the hood that covers it. He shifts slightly, wiping the remnants of the dust on his pants. He takes a deep breath, those hands falling to her as he pushes on her to roll her over.

His heart drops as the hood and hair fall away. A line of blood falls from her nose, soil covers one side of her face where she fell.

He scrambles to pick her up, hold her against him just like he used to do. But there's no tenderness in it anymore; she's just a woman of malevolence, no true child of god. She's nothing. Nothing to him anymore.

Yet his heart is still heavy as he stands, as he adjusts her more comfortably in his arms and, as he begins to walk back towards the village, he can't help but whisper, _I'm sorry. You shouldn't have returned._

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Her hand swipes over the woman's face, shutting her eyes for good. Endless years of pain and misery, denying Regina's help everyday for the past ten years has all came down to this; a lifeless body at dawn. _At least she's at peace now_ , Regina thinks.

"Has she gone with God now?"

Regina smiles to herself, standing up from where she's kneeled on the wooden boards. She pulls her hand from Emma's cold, relaxed grasp.

"Yes Henry," she answers the boy. "She is."

She keeps her gaze on Emma. They'll have to move her soon, she'll have to go down to the church and tell them of the woman's passing- they'll take it from her and Regina, she needs to be as far away from here as possible.

"What's going to happen to me?"

Regina looks to him then, to the ten year old boy who's life she saved all them years ago, when Emma found her, begging her to keep the boy alive. She often wondered what would happen to Henry once Emma had gone, he couldn't stay with her- it was too dangerous.

"Where would you like to go, Henry?"

She watches a fearful expression cross the boy's face. "Not with them. I don't want to go with them," he tells her, shaking his head.

"Then who?"

"I want to stay with you."

Her eyes close as she turns her head away. She feared this, feared Henry choosing her. He doesn't understand; doesn't understand what she is, how she's perceived by the world, and what they'll do to her- _to him_ \- if they find out what she can do.

It's too dangerous.

"Please, Regina," he begs, biting his lip. "I've got nobody else."

She shakes her head, her eyes still closed. Why is she even considering this? Considering taking him with her? It's a fool's decision. Yet there is someone who could probably care for the child, one of the last people she can trust, someone who will look after him just like she would, if not better.

But of course, it means going back there.

Regina looks back at Henry- still standing there by the door, hiding away in the shadows.

"Pack your stuff, Henry," she says with a sigh.

"Why? Where are we going?"

"All Hallow's."

"Where's that?"

 _Hell._

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

It's business that makes him come here- least that's what he tells himself.

That's only partly true, of course. The Governor had sent him here, Robin's not here by his own accord. But he knows that even if the man hadn't sent him, his feet would find their own way to this little prison and right directly to her cell.

He's done this a thousand times but never has he left this much anxiety before- can feel it tightening around his chest with each step he makes. He's here to do a job, he tells himself over and over. _That is all, she'll understand._

The cells aren't as full as they used to be. Years ago, each cell would hold up to about five prisoners; those to be questioned and those to be hanged. Each day All Hallow's alone would see two, three hangings and Robin would watch from the sidelines as his father cut the rope.

His mind often ran to thoughts of Regina. Was she safe? Still alive? Had she even managed to get out of Noctorum before being caught?

Seems he found out that answer today.

"So you're one of them now?"

He keeps his expression stony, ignoring everything he feels for this woman before him.

"One of what, milady?"

She moves from the corner of the cell. Robin finds himself taking a step back when her fingers curl around the bars.

"You know what," she says, her voice full of venom.

It hurts.

When he took on this position, he felt it a betrayal to her. As he knelt before the Governor, he shut his eyes and all he could see was her gazing back at him, anger and deception staring back.

Still, he stood up, accepting the position and hoping that if they were to ever meet again, she'd understand why he did it.

"I had to, otherwise they'd kill me."

She nods, but Robin can see the mockery in it.

"And now you kill us."

"I hunt-"

"It's the same thing."

Robin falls silent, his little attempt at an argument falling short. Even now, ten years later, she can still prove him wrong.

She pushes away from the bars, moving to sit down on the bench that makes up her bed. Robin watches, silent, knowing he should go now but not wanting to leave. He hasn't even started on the Governor's questions.

"How long am I in here for?"

Robin shrugs, it varies upon prisoner. Sometimes months, even years, then there are those that stay for a day.

"Until your trial."

"When will that be?"

"I don't know."

He watches as she nods, her fingers clenching and unclenching around the metal bench.

She doesn't need to be here, Robin thinks not for the first time. She's not dangerous, she can help people and probably has knowing her. This is the last place she needs to be.

But it's where she's ended up and Robin has a job to do even if he doesn't want to do it right now.

He kneels down outside the cell, pulling out some parchment and quill.

"Regina, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"I confess."

I takes him aback and at first he's unsure if he heard right.

"What?" he asks.

She looks towards him then and for the first time Robin sees a resolve and finality that's never been there before.

"I confess to being a witch."


End file.
